Nationalised lender Bradford & Bingley (B&B) today announced it returned to profit in the first half. The bank posted a pre-tax profit of £896 million for the six months to the end of June, after posing a loss of £160 million in the same period a year ago. Meanwhile, operating costs fell from £65 million [...]
An independent valuer has said former shareholders of crisis-torn Bradford & Bingley (B&B) will not receive any compensation after it was split and sold. At the height of the financial crisis, B&B’s loan book was nationalised, while Spanish banking giant Santander took ownership of its savings business and branch network. B&B’s shares closed at 20p [...]
Spanish banking giant Santander is to begin its integration of UK High Street banks – Abbey and Bradford & Bingley (B&B). Santander, which is the second largest banking group in the world after HSBC, became a household name in the UK when it acquired Abbey for £9.5 billion, back in 2004. In July 2008, it [...]
Mortgage borrowers with Santander will soon be able to take advantage of a bank current account that attaches no fees to overdrafts, whether authorised or unauthorised. The Spanish banking giant is launching a “Zero” current account on 11th January 2010 to coincide with its rebranding of Abbey, Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester to [...]
Nationalised Bradford & Bingley (B&B) is reportedly considering splitting itself into two in order to raise money to repay its £18.4 billion loan from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The troubled buy-to-let lender was nationalised over a year ago to prevent it from collapse which led to Spanish bank, Santander, acquiring B&B’s £20 billion [...]
Bradford & Bingley (B&B) has launched a new online Notice Saver account paying interest at a variable rate of 3.3% gross/AER. New and existing B&B customers can open the account with a minimum balance of just £1. The account includes an instant access option for savers who need to withdraw their money. Account holders can [...]
Bradford & Bingley has launched a new two-year fixed-rate bond paying 4.35% interest. The bond requires a minimum deposit of £10,000, and no withdrawals are permitted during the life of the bond. Savers looking to take advantage of the bond must have internet access as it is only available online. Reza Attar-Zadeh, director of savings [...]
Abbey, Alliance & Leicester, and Bradford & Bingley have announced the launch of a new two-year fixed-rate bond paying interest at 4.2%. Savers can open the bond with an investment of between £10,000 and £2 million. Any withdrawals incur a penalty of 120 days interest. The bonds can be opened by visiting any branch of [...]
In a move which will cost £12 million, Santander is to re-name its UK High Street banks: Abbey, Alliance & Leicester (A&L) and Bradford & Bingley (B&B). According to Santander, the move is aimed at saving £180 million from integrating the three banks. The move would also allow the UK business to use the “expertise [...]
Santander’s UK banks have launched a new two year fixed-rate bond paying interest at 4.01% gross p.a./AER. Minimum deposit is £30,000, and maximum deposit is £2 million. The bond is available in store from branches of Abbey, Bradford & Bingley, and Alliance & Leicester. Reza Attar-Zadeh, director of savings and investments at Santander UK, said [...]
Santander-owned Alliance & Leicester (A&L) has launched a new individual savings account (ISA) designed to attract customers who may have been put off saving by the current climate of low interest rates. The one-year fixed rate bond ISA pays interest at 3.00% tax free, with the account maturing on 1 May 2010. Minimum deposit is [...]
Lord Turner, the Financial Service Authority’s chairman, has said that as a result of increased regulatory control consumers are likely to face higher mortgage rates as costs are passed on. The FSA is now considering a number of new measures in order to avert any future banking crisis. The primary consideration is looking to increase [...]
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics today have revealed that national debt could be pushed up by as much as £1.5 trillion, following the bailouts of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds TSB. Billions of pounds were injected into the two banks last autumn to prevent them from collapse. Furthermore, both Northern [...]
Spanish bank, Santander, has raised eyebrows today by announcing a €7.2 billion (£5.9 billion) rights issue. The bank, which recently acquired Alliance & Leicester, said the heavily discounted rights issue will allow it to strengthen its capital and provide an investment opportunity for its shareholders. However, just last week the bank insisted it had no [...]
High Street bank Abbey, which is owned by Santander, has announced a rise of 70% in new deposits as consumers look for a secure place to deposit their savings. During the first nine months of the year, Abbey said it took £4.3 billion in deposits, compared with £2.5 billion during the same period in 2007. [...]
A crisis might be a time for action rather than questions but with the scale of the problems facing the UK banking sector escalating, one particular question regularly bubbles to the surface. Is Grupo Santander any more likely to emerge from the credit crisis in sound shape than some of its failing European rivals? Santander [...]
The nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley is the most blatant case of legalised bank robbery this country has ever seen, with almost a million shareholders likely to lose a fortune. The whole point of having shareholders in a democracy is that they own the company and can decide its fate between them, including sacking the [...]
The BBC reported over the weekend that troubled buy-to-let lender Bradford & Bingley (B&B) was set to be nationalised. It has emerged this morning that Spanish bank, Santander, which recently agreed to buy Alliance & Leicester, is to acquire B&B’s £20 billion savings base and its network of 197 branches. According to sources, talks ran [...]
Troubled buy-to-let lender, Bradford & Bingley (B&B) is set to be nationalised, according to the BBC. Treasury officials and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) have been holding talks with the lender in an attempt to secure its future. The bank is to be nationalised using special legislation the Treasury implemented after it took Northern Rock [...]
Troubled buy-to-let mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley (B&B) has announced its mortgage processing centre in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, is be closed with the loss of 370 jobs. The processing centre is to close in the first quarter of 2009. B&B, which is the UK’s biggest buy-to-let lender, blamed the continuing downturn in the market for mortgages. [...]
Gender directive could slash men’s annuity payouts
The EU Gender Directive, which came into force today, could see men losing up to £10,000 from their annuity payouts, according to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Under the new rules insurers are no longer allowed to take gender into account when setting annuity rates and premiums on insurance products. Men previously enjoyed higher annuity rates than [...]
Home rental costs down in November
The cost of renting a house in England and Wales fell by 0.4 per cent in November, its first dip since March, according to a survey by LSL Property Services. Average rent was £741m during the month, returning to the level seen in September. However, it was 3.4 per higher than in November last year. [...]
Lloyds TSB halts sale of packaged accounts in branches
Lloyds TSB will stop selling packaged account in its branches from 1 January 2013, until its sales procedures are brought into line with those operated by sister bank The Halifax. Lloyds TSB is one of the main providers of packaged accounts in Britain, with around one in three of its customers choosing to pay fees [...]
Housing market recovery to continue next year
Recent improvements in the housing market should continue into next year, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) Gross lending is estimated to have increased to £12.9 billion in November, helped by the Funding for Lending scheme which provides banks and building societies with lower-cost funding, which they are then supposed to pass on [...]
Newcastle Building Society exits interest-only mortgages
Newcastle Building Society has stopped offering interest-only mortgages to new borrowers, following the lead of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Nationwide, Co-operative bank and Coventry Building Society. The decision will not affect existing Newcastle customers and applications for interest-only mortgages received before 14 December will still be processed. Prior to the credit crunch, interest-only mortgages [...]
Less than half of Brits considered creditworthy
Fifty-seven per cent of UK adults are at risk of having an application for credit turned down by a mainstream lender according to a new report. The ‘Mind the Credit Gap‘ report commissioned by aqua credit cards suggests that even people with a good credit rating and earning more than £50,000 could have a credit [...]
Monthly incomes £22 lower in 2012
The average monthly income of UK households fell by £22 in real terms compared with last year, according to a survey carried out for the Bank of England (BoE) by NMG Consulting. People on lower incomes have seen their income eroded more than higher earners and households still have high levels of debt the BoE [...]
Savers dig deep to fund Christmas
New research from the Halifax suggests that savers are funding their Christmas spending with money set aside for other purposes. Thirty-seven per cent of 2,138 savers surveyed by the bank at the end of November had withdrawn savings in the last three months. The average amount withdrawn was £1,186, more than double the average savings [...]
Financial data at risk from unsafe passwords
According to a survey by the Payments Council the problem of having to remember a different password for several accounts means that many internet users are compromising the security of their financial data. Internet users have 22 password-protected accounts on average and many use the same log-in details for more than one account, even though [...]
Wonga launches Paylater loans on retailer website
Payday loan company Wonga has launched a new Paylater service on furniture firm Cotswold Company’s website. The service, which allows customers to “buy now, pay later” will be introduced on other retailers’ sites in the near future. Although the Paylater branding is similar to Wonga’s, the Wonga name only appears in the small print. A [...]
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